Chris Lord-Alge's Mix Room In Your Headphones

US Waves and Chris Lord-Alge collaborate on the new Waves CLA Nx plugin 29/07/21

Waves Audio is now shipping the CLA Nx plugin. They tell us that the Waves CLA Nx plugin brings GRAMMY®-winning mixer Chris Lord-Alge's famed Mix LA studio control room to any pair of headphones – so you can monitor reliably on headphones and make better mixing decisions anywhere, anytime. Here's the full story direct from Waves...

After faithfully modeling Chris Lord-Alge's console and classic hardware gear in previous CLA-designated plugins, Waves and CLA have finally teamed up to replicate Chris's unique and proven Mix LA room acoustics and monitoring system. The CLA Nx plugin combines Waves Nx spatial audio technology with precise measurements of Mix LA, to replicate the acoustic response of Chris's control room inside any set of headphones.

Built by the late premier studio designer Vincent Van Hoff, Mix LA has been Chris Lord-Alge's studio since 2008. This is the room he has trusted to deliver his mixes for Bruce Springsteen, Green Day, Muse and countless top artists.

Chris's complete monitoring setup is now available over any headphones via CLA Nx. This includes the acoustic response of Chris's NS10-modeled CLA-10 nearfield monitors, coupled with his subwoofer system; his custom-built Ocean Way HR1 farfield speakers, modified to his specs; and even the boombox model he relies on to check how his mixes will translate to small-speaker devices.

With CLA Nx you can:

Trust your headphone mixes to translate reliably to diverse sound systems

Reference your tracks on an expertly calibrated monitoring environment

Make better decisions on headphones about mix depth, stereo imaging, low-end response, reverb amount & more

When working in less-than-optimal mix environments, you can monitor through CLA's expertly designed Mix LA acoustics on your headphones. Even if you do have a good mixing space, CLA Nx gives you additional reference environments to check your mixes.

CLA Nx is powered by Waves' pioneering Nx technology for immersive spatial audio, using channel crosstalk, inter-aural delays (ITD), filters (ILD), early reflections, head motion tracking and personalized head anatomy calibration to replicate the immersive experience of hearing audio in the real world. These elements are coupled in CLA Nx with precision acoustic measurements of Chris's control room and adjustable levels of the studio's ambience to deliver a faithful three-dimensional "out-of-head" representation of the Mix LA room.

CLA Nx also supports head tracking – via your webcam or the optional Waves Nx Head Tracker Bluetooth device – for enhanced realism of the immersive three-dimensional spatial effect.

CLA Nx features:

Headphone monitoring plugin for better mix reference

Developed with GRAMMY®-winning mix engineer Chris Lord-Alge

Precision model of Chris Lord-Alge's private Mix LA control room

Check your mixes on Chris's three sets of custom studio monitors

Nearfield monitors: CLA-10 (custom NS-10 model) + subwoofer

Farfield monitors: Chris's custom modified Ocean Way HR1s

Boombox to check how your mixes translate to small-speaker devices

Better reference for mix depth, panning, reverb, low-end response

Compatible with all headphone models

Adjustable studio Ambience control

Personalized head anatomy calibration

Supports head tracking for enhanced realism, via webcam or the Nx Head Tracker (purchased separately)

Chris Lord-Alge remarks: "With CLA Nx, my studio can now be your studio. This is a way you can monitor how I monitor and hear your mixes on your own headphones like you're in my control room. It's accurate – you can count on what you're hearing, and that's so important to mixing. My room sounds perfect to me. The way it's built, with the surface and the angles just right – it makes a huge difference to how I hear. The low end and the top end are focused on my ears and not reflecting. What I hear is what I get, and I don't have to worry about 'Is it too much bass, is it too bright, is there too much reflection in the room?' That's what we can now translate with CLA Nx. You can be in the same control room with me, sit in my chair, and have a similar monitoring experience in your own headphones."

The CLA Nx plugin is Waves' latest release in a series that brings the world's finest studio control rooms to your headphones, including Nx Ocean Way Nashville and Abbey Road Studio 3